So I have arrived here in Japan. And the adventure/rush has not stopped since we got here. First we spent the night in the mission home. The jet lag actually wasn`t that bad. I think I only slept for maybe 20 minutes of our 9 hour flight. Then as a result, I slept very well in the Honbu (the mission home). Then I woke up the morning ready to start the day and haven`t had any trouble since then. The MTC address will no longer be usable. Now send mail to the address that you either have or can get from my family. I do appreciate all the letters up til now. Keep them coming. I am in an area called Tama. I`m not actually in Tokyo itself. I`m in a sub district of it. When I first met my new companion he sprung some interesting news on me. "We have a lesson tonight at 6:00." My first day in the field I had my first lesson. It went well I guess. I didn`t say much and didn`t understand much but from what I did get it was a good lesson. Then immediately after that was my first Eikaiwa (English Class) It went really well actually, because the people that I was teaching spoke English well, so I was able to just be myself (not that I wasn`t before but I can`t express myself as well in Japanese). So, that was my first day. The next day we went and got my bike and stuff and we started dendo-ing (dendo=missionary work). It`s gotten to the point for me now, where I can stop someone on the street and ask them questions and nod and act like I understood what they were saying and then look to my companion, Elder Skabelund, for him to take over and respond. My companion is a terrific guy. He`s been out around 19 months and his Japanese is incredible. So one of the things that we`re trying rather hard to do is to speak only in Japanese. This as you all may imagine is rather difficult for me because I don`t yet know enough Japanese to express myself the way I would like, but I am studying very hard. Japan is rather overwhelming. The culture, the people. The people are rather nice most times but it is not uncommon for us to be completely ignored trying to stop someone on the street. I guess it`s more polite to ignore someone than to turn them down haha. I do take my shoes off before entering houses and I do bow to people although not as much as I expected. So Sunday I had to get up and give a brief jiko shokai (self introduction). And I can truly testify of the gift of tongues. After saying a sentence or 2 about myself I bore a simple testimony. The words that came from my mouth, came out the way that I wanted to and I got the thoughts across that came into my mind. On my way back to sitting down I couldn`t help but feel the spirit and an overwhelming sense of love from the members. The members are nice but slightly leery as I guess they would be with all new missionaries. Maybe once I can speak better and get to know them all a bit better, things will get better. There`s so much more I could and want to say, but my time for this week is up. If you have any specific questions or anything please write me (a letter, not email) and I`ll write you back on my next Pday (which is Tuesday for me, but Monday for all you back home). So I`ll close by saying that I love you all and miss you all, because I really do. Each of you really helped me with my mission preparation and I really thank you for that. I pray that you all are well and that you can have the Spirit with you as much as possible. I can say that I know that this is God`s work and that this Gospel is true. My mission, even so far has really strengthened that in me. So until next week I say mata ne! (see ya later eh)
Elder Keith
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